


Danse Macabre

by Emerald



Category: Moonlight (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-15 06:28:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/157968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emerald/pseuds/Emerald
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an evening out, just the three of them, Josef decides to show Beth her place in the scheme of things. It was no secret Josef harboured his own feelings for Mick. Not that he’d ever dare admit them to anyone but himself...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Danse Macabre

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the dates don't match with Canon. Consider this piece Alternate Universe to some degree.

****  
“So I hear 82 was a good year.” Beth tossed back the remainder of her glass of wine, and then reclined back on the mattress, discarding the empty wine glass, and leaving it to roll clumsily along the floor.

They’d been planning this night out for an age it seemed, the three of them indulging in an evening’s pleasantries, hot jazz and an abundance of cool liquor. Now they lay together on the floor of Beth’s apartment. A lumpy piece of foam beneath them, courtesy of Beth’s insistence that she drag the guest mattress out of storage, for the sake of comfort.

“Well if you don’t count the million dollars I lost on Cincinnati, then yes I suppose it was.” Josef maintained a polite distance, turned on his side as he watched Beth and Mick interact. And then he was locking gazes with Mick, and offering up an arched brow grin. The tone of his voice a pointed reminder, “You remember 82 don’t you, Mick.”

“Yes,” Mick nodded, and tried to affect a patient smile, the line of his mouth drawn into a thin-lipped grimace instead, “I remember.”

“Is that the year you and Josef first slept together?” Beth piped up. “It’s ok, Mick’s already told me all about it.”

Josef hadn’t been expecting that. He’d been slow boiling revenge for weeks, ever since the night Mick had seen fit to put him on the spot with Simone.

“I bet he hasn’t told you the whole story.” Josef assumed he still had one ace up his sleeve.

“You mean about him proposing marriage to you?” Beth smiled, and settled back into Mick’s arms. “Yeah, he told me about that as well. He seemed a little embarrassed about it.”

Josef had to give her a credit, Beth certainly seemed to have taken these revelations in her stride. As a matter of fact, if she acted any more understanding, he might just have to punch her right smack dab in the middle of her understanding face.

“So he should be.” Josef tossed Mick another pointed smile, eyebrows raised in a note of burlesque. “He turned up on my doorstep, completely unannounced, with suitcases packed, and two plane tickets to Las Vegas clutched in his hand. Of course I had to turn him down, tempting as the offer was.”

Josef affected an expression of sarcastic breeze, waving a lackadaisical hand through the air in front of him. As if he were dismissing the idea outright. The truth was there was part of him that had wanted to say yes. If he hadn’t been so certain that Mick’s sudden rush of feelings was due mostly to the loss, and confusion he felt after Coraline’s death, he might have done just that. It was no secret Josef harboured his own feelings for Mick. Not that he’d ever dare admit them to anyone but himself.

He pushed those thoughts aside, and turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.

“It sounds like quite the sight.” Beth was saying then. Tittering with amusement at the thought of Mick and Josef in Sin City, hotfooting it down the aisle to the strains of Viva Las Vegas, with an Elvis impersonator presiding over the ceremony.

“Oh it was,” Josef deadpanned, and then raised a wry grin; “I just thank God for small mercies. At least he wasn’t wearing a dress.”

“What, no froufrou and lace?” Beth jabbed a teasing finger into Mick’s ribcage.

“Yeah, alright,” Mick tried to reel the conversation back in then. “Can we talk about something else? Preferably something that doesn’t involve the two of you taking delight in embarrassing me.”

“Sorry, darling.” Beth muttered a sheepish apology, and turned to place a contrite kiss on the side of Mick’s face.

“Yes.” Josef followed suit with an apology of his own, steeped in trademark sarcasm, “Sorry, darling.” Josef’s expression shifted serious then. “I must admit I am surprised at how well you seem have taken all of this, Beth.”

“Yeah, well,” Beth shrugged, “it was a little hard at first, but then I figured it stands to reason. You and Mick are closer than anyone I’ve ever met before in my life. It makes sense he’d turn to you as an obvious anchor after what happened with Coraline. And we’ve both agreed not to keep secrets from one another. We move in different worlds, I just have to learn to accept that. I’m not saying it’s always going to be easy for us.”

The girl had insight. Josef had to give her that. Although he had the distinct impression whatever conversations she’d had with Mick of late, had given her the false idea she now shared a bond equal to the one he had forged with Mick over the past fifty odd years. Josef felt the need to correct her on that.

“Do you want to see a trick?” Josef asked Beth then. Before she’d had a chance to reply he was shifting toward Mick, and instructing her to, “Move.”

Beth scrambled onto the lounge, watching with baited breath as Josef lay alongside Mick, and clutched Mick’s face in his hands, drawing him close.

“Josef, don’t.” Mick launched an immediate protest, and tried to move away. Josef held firm.

“Mick,” Beth reached down, and placed a reassuring hand on Mick’s shoulder, “it’s ok, I want to see what he does. No secrets, remember. You never know, I might learn something.”

Beth’s voice was steeped in promise. Josef had to stop himself from laughing out loud. This particular trick was something he’d been taught centuries before, being able to modulate his voice to tap into certain primal response centres in a person’s brain. He was hardly likely to pass its exact merits along to Beth. Not when it was something he could hold over her. Use it to show Beth her place in the scheme of things.

Josef began to talk then. Nothing else, just talk. Lips pressed against Mick’s ear. His voice level out of the range of mortal hearing, whispering words Beth couldn’t hear.

The effect it was having on Mick was unmistakeable. Beth looked on, fascinated as she watched the beads of sweat that formed on Mick’s brow. Unneeded breath falling ragged as he writhed, and whimpered under Josef’s oration.

Mick’s hands went to the fastening on his jeans then, intent on getting them undone. Not caring that he was about to jerk off in front of his girlfriend, to the sound of his best friend’s voice.

Josef quickly locked, and spanned Mick’s wrists, pinning Mick’s arms behind his back. And still he kept talking. Varying pace and tone, whispering colourful descriptions of times gone by, painting a tapestry of words. Moments of intimacy they had once shared. Mick arched his back, and strained against the bonds of arousal Josef’s words created. Strung out on a collage of sounds, and phrases, desperate for release.

And then Josef gave a single, snap toned command, speaking loud enough for Beth to hear, and took Mick over the edge.

“Come.”

“Oh Jesus, Fuck.” Mick gave a strangled cry, and sank his fangs into Josef’s throat. Growling with pleasure as he hooked his leg over Josef’s thigh, and rode hard up against him.

Josef’s own expression was etched in a clear message. All pale visage, and red rimmed, ice blue eyes as he held Mick close, and looked to Beth.

 _“No matter how much you try. No matter how far you think you’ve come. You will never share what we have. You might possess his heart, and body, but I’ll always have his mind, and soul. They are mine to keep. Always.”_

Mick’s frenetic movements finally slowed, and then stopped. Josef stroked the back of Mick’s neck with a tender hand, and kept him near for a while. Enjoying the sensation of Mick’s body pressed against his. Mick’s mouth still working lazily against Josef’s throat. The front of his jeans dampened with fluid.

And then Mick was falling back down to earth, coming to his senses, and carefully disengaging himself from Josef’s embrace.

“I’d better go clean up.” He muttered, a little embarrassed, and quickly wiped the smears of Josef’s blood from his mouth

“Wow.” Beth commented after Mick had left the room, trying her best to hide the hurt, and confusion she felt at witnessing a connection she could never hope to achieve. “I have to say, that was impressive. The sex you guys had must have been amazing.”

“Thank you.” Josef smiled, and waved a dismissive hand. For a moment he almost felt sorry for Beth. For her naiveté in believing that she could ever truly bond with Mick on the same level as a Vampire. “And it was. Maybe I should have married him after all. Maybe I still will.”

Beth couldn’t tell if Josef was joking or not. The tone of voice had been rife with humour, but his expression said otherwise. Beth decided not to take Josef at face value. “You’ll have to get in line first.”

“Touché.” Josef conceded to Beth’s seniority, fleeting as it was. She was mortal, living out her own demise on a daily basis. Mick would never turn her. Josef was sure of that. “It’s late, I should go.”

Josef was on his feet then, saying his farewells, and planning to take his leave. All in all the night had been a success. His initial disappointment at being deprived of the opportunity to put Mick on the spot, the same as Mick had done to him, had turned into something else, something far better.

“You don’t want to wait for Mick to come back?” Beth stood up, and began to walk Josef to the door.

“He won’t. Not for a while at least, not while I’m still here.” Josef sounded knowledgeable of that fact. “Mick never was big on small talk afterwards. He preferred to withdraw. Being with me reminds Mick that he’s a Vampire. He always had trouble dealing with aspect.”

Beth was surprised at Josef’s candour. She decided to push further.

“Josef, wait.” Beth reached for Josef’s arm, stopping him just as he walked through the open doorway. She waited for him to turn and face her. “Just answer me one thing. Do you love him?”

“Mick’s my best friend,” Josef shrugged, and pretended he didn’t know what Beth was talking about, “of course I do.”

“That’s not what I meant, Josef.” Beth continued to prod, trying to draw him out.

“I know.” For a moment it looked as if Josef was weighing his options, wondering how best to answer. And then he was saying another quick goodnight, and walking away. Refraining from speaking further.

 _It was no secret Josef harboured his own feelings for Mick. Not that he’d ever dare admit them to anyone but himself..._

 _“...Do I love him? Always have, always will."_


End file.
